Dave Copelandis an old friend and an award-winning writer/ investigative reporter whose work has appeared in dozens of national magazines and newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal online, Reason and Boston Common. His non-fiction first novel Blood and Volume: Inside New York’s Israeli Mafia was published by Barricade Books in 2007 to much hoopla. It’s a really fascinating read recounting how Copeland spent two years researching the little-known but vicious gang that New York City tabloid reporters dubbed “the Israeli mafia” during their brief reign in New York’s underworld in the 1980′s. We loved it. Here he shares his experiences with Hollywood and the characters he meets with promises of getting Blood and Volume on the big screen.

The first one came even before the book was released: an ex-actor who said he wanted to get into directing and maybe star in the film version of the adaptation of my book. He didn’t give up when he figured out there was no six-figure book advance, that I had no money to invest in a film: the best I could do was spot him $84 for a room in a hooker-ridden hotel when he came to Boston to meet me.